% 1070 words
% Explain how you would identify the significant effects. Discuss
% any difficulties in determining the significance of effects in EIA

\section{Significance}

The process of impact assessment is conceptually open-ended. As one of
its major goals is to aid a decision-making process, however, each
step in the assessment must be completed within a given time
frame. Hence, limits are imposed on the level of detail, the length of
the time period for which impacts can be assessed at the expected
level of detail, and the number of interactions that can reasonably be
considered.  To set these limits, judgments must be made on how
significant each potential impact is, a decision on how much detail
and how much effort in avoiding or mitigating the impact is
appropriate, and whether the residual impact is insignificant enough
to be acceptable.  These judgments are crucially guided by the
practitioners' own values and the values they consider in the
evaluation process \parencite{lawrence}.  As the determination of
significance is inherently subjective, it should not be an activity
performed only by experts and with a claim to objectivity, but should
aim to be a collaborative procedure guided by reasoned
discourse \parencite{lawrence-approach}.

According to \textcite{lawrence-approach}, the approach to determining
impact significance is usually ``limited to ad hoc and inconsistent
judgments with reasons and/or to the staged application of thresholds
and/or criteria.''  The Resource Management Act 1991 does not
prescribe a process for the assessment of significant effects. As all
major projects require resource consents, however, impact significance
is, in practice, reflected by the management plans and established by
resource consent decisions of regional and territorial councils. The
Ministry for the Environment bemoans that a ``lack of clarity and
certainty in some regional plans (eg, a lack of enforceable limits)
has led to issues being decided consent by consent and often
re-litigated'', resulting in ``decision-making processes [that] are
litigious, resource-consuming and create
uncertainty'' \parencite[p. 18][]{freshwater-reform}.

Since the National Policy Statement for Freshwater
Management \parencite{2011TODO} the ``national values of fresh water''
have been made explicit, but their postulation does not give rise to a
guideline by which the significance of activities affecting these
values could be determined. For example, the statement made in the
NPSFM that water is valued for ``cleaning, dilution and disposal of
waste'' conflicts with the statement about respecting water's
intrinsic values such as ``the natural conditions of fresh water, free
from biological or chemical alterations resulting from human
activity'' \parencite{2011TODO}.  Resolving this ambiguity, the NPSFM
intends a limits-based regime to be established where regional
councils are expected to collaborate with the community to translate
individual values and freshwater objectives into enforcable limits for
individual waterbodies \parencite[][p. 14]{npsfm-guide}.


- freshwater reform: collaborative approach to planning
  - talk about drawbacks mentioned in \textcite{lawrence-approach}
      \begin{quote}
        The collaborative approach is viewed as too quickly equating
        public concerns and issues with impact significance, at the expense of
        other sources of insight and knowledge.
      \end{quote}

- significance decisions must be made on a sound information base,
which rarely exists





(third part of lawrence): important to assess significance of
*positive effects* to see if they are worth the negative impacts.



\subsection{}

- significant impacts:
  - likelihood
  - effects that affect sensitive parameters

  

WASTEWATER

temperature:

  According to the project description, an existing dairy factory
  discharges wastewater that is two degrees warmer than the river
  water. If the planned factory has a comparable wastewater output, the
  water may have to be treated before discharge to avoid significant
  effects on the aquatic ecosystem.

organic/inorganic compounds:
contamination with antibiotics / pesticides:

  According to the description, the river is already used as a sink for
  the wastewater of another dairy factory; dairy farming is said to have
  expanded in this area, indicating that the inflow of organic and
  inorganic components from farm effluent and non-point sources has also
  increased. Under these circumstances, the cumulative effects of
  wastewater discharge must be addressed.